E3 2002: Auto Modellista Impressions

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Capcom's cel-shaded racer is sweet looking, deep, and online.

By IGN Staff

While Capcom Entertainment was unable to show off Devil May Cry 2, its flagship action game, to the world in playable form today at E3, the Japanese developer boasted two forms of its cool new racer, Auto Modellista.

Players could vie against computer AI, or walk five steps and sit down in a nice arcade booth, and vie against three other humans in an online simulation race (via LAN).

Auto Modellista is truly impressive looking. The cars themselves aren't necessarily Gran Turismo beaters, to be sure, but they do boast an atypical visage. They feel like arcade-style racing vehicles, but they look very different and very cool. Strangely, it's hard to take your eyes off the cars, to be honest.

Visually, the cars might look unusual, but it's the special effects that will make you sit up and take notice. The game features a never-seen-before wind effect that will make you say, "Oh, I've seen that before." As you speed through a long tunnel in the one playable level (Tokyo Stage 2), you'll see little white lines speeding toward your car, a kind of visualization of the sense of speed that just looks and feels right.

When you leave the tunnel, you'll blast out into a night filled with heavy rain. The rain looks excellent and it comes down in a pattern that mixes up a slight variation patterns.

After you get over the visuals, the gameplay is rather regular. It felt a little like Ridge Racer and not terribly distinct. Oh, I know, the game is not nearly done, and the car physics are all still being worked on, but the general feeling I got from this game was that it plays like a pretty regular arcade racer.

The things that should make this gameplay more interesting, however, are the customization features and the online abilities. The game is ultimately customizable, from the shocks to the tires the computerization and more, to simple car colors to the actual shape of the car itself.

As for the online component, at E3 the game is running as a four-player LAN-based game, while the final Japanese version should be eight-player compatible online. As for us Yankees, Capcom Entertainment has yet to decide how it's going to handle the game. Apparently, Sony and Capcom agree it should be an online racing game, but exactly how it will be is the sticking point. Will it be peer-to-peer, or will Capcom need a big fat expensive server to hold all its clients? To be continued¿

The other element hanging over Capcom's head is which car licenses can be transferred from Japan and which can't. That, and Capcom apparently wants to add new car licenses using America and European cars (the attendant also said "German cars"), so it looks like there is a fair bit of localization that will affect the final outcome of Auto Modellista here in the US. The licensed cars for the Japanese game listed included Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Daihatsu, and Suzuki.

Auto Modellista, 50% complete, is due in the US in November, and the game has a future that's due for a number of changes. Nonetheless, Auto Modellista looks like it could be a very fun competitive racer for 'Net heads who like pretty cars and very Japanese things. It's beautiful, fast, and fun. What else do you need?